Tuesday, 16 December 2008

More Silverlight Clock

I could, I suppose, have implemented this project in JavaScript -- that language has all the tools to get the current URL query string and set a permalink to a custom URL, one that wouldn't need clicking, but could be right-clicked; and save the self-inflicted DLR download hit.

If I wanted to, I could put the permalink URL out to an element in the DOM with Silverlight, too, which negates one perceived advantage. And using Silverlight gives me something extra -- multithreading.

Yes, there are JavaScript clocks, like this annoying mouse-following one, but they have to fake such things because they are running full-time in the UI thread. By using a BackgroundWorker to prompt a redraw at intervals (and, later, perform updates on the positions of celestial bodies), with Silverlight, I can offload everything but the painting from the UI thread.